A vacuum cleaner is designed to separate dust via centrifugal separation. Such a vacuum cleaner may include a centrifugal separator to separate dust (or impurities) using centrifugal force and a dust collector including a dust box configured to store the separated dust.
The dust collector is usually mounted in the vacuum cleaner and must be separated and moved from the vacuum cleaner when it is necessary to discharge dust stored therein or to clean the dust collector. Thus, the dust collector includes a grip piece for movement. Moreover, the dust collector is configured such that upper and lower units thereof are separable from each other when discharging dust (impurities) stored therein or during cleaning thereof.
Accordingly, the dust collector must exhibit easy coupling/separation between the upper and lower units as well as easy movement or attachment/detachment of the dust collector with respect to the vacuum cleaner and also, must firmly keep the upper and lower units coupled to each other. In this case, a wet type dust collector filled with water to remove dust has a greater need to fix the upper and lower units.
For this reason, a conventional dust collector may include a locking unit, which may firmly keep a grip piece, a centrifugal separation assembly and a dust box coupled to one another and also, may easily perform separation of the aforementioned components.
Examples of the related art may include Korean Patent Registration No. 560332 (related art I), Swiss Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 688734 (related art II) and European Patent No. EP1062900 (related art III).
Related art I discloses a dust collector in which coupling between a cyclone unit (centrifugal separator) and a dust box 120 is released as a user pushes a button while gripping a transportation grip piece provided at the dust box. Thereafter, as the user moves a handle of the coupling/separating grip piece to a predetermined position and then, lifts the handle, the cyclone unit and the dust box may be separated from each other.
Related art II discloses a dust collector in which a close contact rod is pivotally secured to an end of a handle and a distal end of a lateral protrusion installed to a dust box. As the close contact rod performs crank action according to a position of the handle, a filter chamber may be separated from the dust box.
Related art III discloses a dust collector in which a cover is fixed to a tank via coupling between lifting means provided at the cover and a handle.
However, the above described related arts I to III do not disclose a function to fix the handle or the grip piece without a risk of rotation and therefore, have a problem in that the handle or the grip piece may be unnecessarily shaken in a locking released state, causing inconvenience in use.
In addition, due to the fact that the above described related arts I to III do not disclose a function of fixing the handle or the grip piece in a locking released state without a risk of rotation, there is a problem in that collected impurities or water may leak via unwanted opening of a centrifugal separation assembly, causing secondary contamination.